


Superheros

by PinguMew98



Category: Sweet/Vicious (TV)
Genre: Death, F/F, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 18:14:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11606199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinguMew98/pseuds/PinguMew98
Summary: A dark fic about the vigilantes.





	Superheros

“Say it.” Ophelia whined.

“No.” Jules responded offhand.

“But it would be sooo cool if you landed a Christian Bale ‘I’m Batman’ after you confront a perp.” Ophelia continued.

“No.” Jules repeated.

“You suck.” The green-haired girl huffed as she left the couch to grab a drink. Jules tracked her to the kitchen where she watched Ophelia pour herself a few fingers of bourbon.

“Maybe you shouldn’t drink so much.” Ophelia quirked an eyebrow as she started into her drink.

“I’m fine. I can handle my liquor.”

“Well, you know what they say, there’s nothing you can do for a man who’s determined to destroy himself.”

“I thought you didn’t read comic books.”

Jules cocked her head.

“You jus…Iron Man #172?”

A blank look.

“No? K, you just quoted verbatim Iron Man.”

“He’s the alcoholic?”

Ophelia took a pull of liquor. “Seriously? You went with alcoholic? Not, the dude without the heart, or the guy with the giant suit of armor, futurist, or even playboy millionaire? You went with alcoholic?"

Jules shrugged. “I don’t read comic books. I know those new movies with the alcoholic, the rage guy, the domestic abuser, the deaf guy, and the crazy chick.”

Ophelia gaped at her.

“You said the crazy one breaks reality?” Jules asked as though she was helping Ophelia place the character while also showing that she might have remember a thing from one of Ophelia’s comic book rants.

Sputtering, Ophelia continued staring at Jules.“Did you seriously just classify a bunch of Avengers by their most debilitating traits? I’m starting to think you’re less Batman and more…well, no. Batman would totally have a file about all his enemies noting their key weakness because he’s the world’s greatest detective…point is, you’re the biggest pessimist I’ve ever met.”

“I can’t help it. It’s just how I remember people. Even Kennedy, who I love, will always be the overcompensator.”

Ophelia tilted her head in silent affirmation at Jules’ one word description of her best friend. And without a word, Ophelia headed back around to the couch, drink in hand. Jules really hoped Ophelia didn’t ask what she thought her definer was. They had said some pretty shitty things to each other but Jules knew Ophelia couldn’t come back if she knew that all she saw when she looked at the green-haired girl was that she was broken.

But Ophelia didn’t ask. Perhaps she didn’t want to tarnish the veneer of self-assurance and to question the role she had assigned for herself as the rock upon which Jules could lean. “So, I did some research on this guy, Don Hatcher…”

“Don Hatcher? The junior partner at Hammerstein’s?”

Ophelia flipped through her dossier. “The very same.” She slapped the folder closed. “As I as saying…”

“He’s not on campus.”

“Yes……” Ophelia drew out the word.

“He’s an adult.”

“Yes…What’s the issue?”

Jules stared at Ophelia. “You are there when we get hurt going up against college guys? I’ve been stabbed a couple times and then there’s when you totally got slashed up. And you just want to ramp it up to high profile businessman?”

“The ass clown deserves it!” Ophelia started to rage. “We’re vigilantes!”

“Stop living in a fantasy. We’re not vigilantes. You’re not a comic book hero! We’re just two college kids. The last time I did a takedown not on campus, you killed a guy!”

Ophelia set her jaw, like she was locking her biting words behind her teeth.

“I’m serious Ophelia. Leave this alone.”

If it was one thing Ophelia hated, it was being told what not to do. Jules phone rang. She glanced down and saw Ophelia’s name pop up. She probably had some more information about Don because of course when she said leave it alone, Ophelia definitely didn’t leave it alone.

* * *

Rolling her eyes, she silenced her phone. Almost immediately it began buzzing, Ophelia’s name popping up again. She chewed her bottom lip, considering whether or not to answer. As soon as the phone stopped buzzing, it started up again with Ophelia’s name jumping out at her. She picked it up. “Ophe…”

“Oh thank god Jules.” She heard Ophelia gasp into the phone. Something in her tone worried Jules.

“You alright?”

“Ya sure sure. It’s all good. It’s um…” panic was causing Ophelia’s voice pitch higher than normal.

“Ophelia you’re worrying me. Where are you?”

“…You know you’re amazing. Like you’re the most amazing and brave person I’ve ever met.”

“Seriously…what the hell is going on? Where are you?”

“Out and about. Hey, have you ever thought about how I’m named after a tragic Shakespeare character?”

Jules placed her phone on speaker as she started searching for Ophelia’s location. Jules was getting a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and a long rant from Ophelia usually meant she was deflecting or nervous.

“I mean,” there was a ragged breathe in. “It’s not something I think about all the time, but seriously, not a lot of people are named Ophelia right? But there’s a famous one. So I have to be named after her right? Not the point though. She was in love with this dude dead-set on revenge who scorned her and she fucking killed herself. I tried that once, maybe twice. But that was, like, a while ago. And basically, as I’ve said before, you’re my best friend and maybe…”

Jules was only half listening to the rambling. She was more concerned with finding Ophelia. The GPS for Ophelia popped up on her map and she wasn’t too far away if she biked, quickly. Ophelia continued as Jules ran to her bike and started down the street. “You’re rambling Ophelia.” Was all Jules could think to say as she peddled as fast as she could to the green-haired girl’s location.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s probably the blood loss.”

Jules felt the bottom drop out of her stomach, like she was blindfolded on a roller coaster and had no idea it was careening towards the ground, only to settle into slow creeping dread. “Blood…loss? Why do you have blood loss?”

“Yeah yeah, no worries. You know, like the knife, thing. Blood, loss.”

“You’re scaring me Ophelia. What’s going on? Why won’t you tell me?” She was getting close to the other girl’s location and the sound of the blood pumping in her ears was deafening. There were a few moments in her life where she had been scared for her life, and this was definitely one of them.

“Jules don’t worry about it. It’s all good. I just wanted to say…I, um, I love you?” Jules had said it platonically a million times to Kennedy. But this one felt different. The tone of it, the way it was said; there was a finality to it. The kind of way you’d say it if you know you could get out of having to deal with issue if a feeling wasn’t reciprocated. It was reflexive when she responded back with an “I love you too.” There was a watery laugh on the other end and Jules could almost hear the smirk. As she arrived at the pin on her phone moments later, she jumped off her bike and let it slam to the ground.

“Ophelia!” She heard no responses down the alleyway. Sprinting down the darkened passage, she almost tripped over the green-haired girl. Her legs were askew and her back propped up against the wall. Her phone was trapped between her head and her shoulder.

“Jesus Ophelia.” Jules rushed over to her. She jostled her shoulder, the cell phone clattered to the ground. She smacked her face, trying to rouse her. Ophelia mumbled. “Come on, open your eyes. Dammit Ophelia open your fucking eyes!”

“You said fucking…”

A hysterical laugh/sob erupted from Jules’ lips. Ophelia groaned. Frantically, Jules visually checked the green-haired girl over. She had few cuts and bruises, but way less than she expected. “You said something about blood loss but you don’t seem to be beat up…”

“He fought less with fists and more with guns…”

“You got shot!” Jules didn’t think it was possible, but she started panicking more. Her body shook and her mind buzzed like high voltage electricity lines.

“Sok.” Ophelia slurred, “I’m a mistake anyway sosnot bad.”

Frantically Jules punched the 9-1-1 into her phone. She had no idea how she was going to explain this but she couldn’t let her…”Hello, my friend has been shot at 8th and Sycamore and she’s lost a lot of blood.” The dispatcher relayed the information and told Jules to wait. Wait…

“In comic books, the heroes like, never really die, so don’t worry. Also, Jason Todd Robin was killed but he wasn’t really and he became the bad guy. Promise I won’t be the bad guy though.”

“We’re not in a comic book! Why would you come here alone?!” Jules said, tears in her eyes. “Why would you go when I didn’t have your back?”

“I just want to stop…bad guys…” Ophelia murmured. She shifted causing her to cry out in pain. Jules pulled the other girl to hold her. She could feel Ophelia’s silent sobs punctuated with pained gasps.

Ambulance rides seem so easy in movies. But Jules realized she was in the way most of the time. She wanted out. She was deeply afraid; a fear that equaled her run-ins with Nate and Carter. She attempted to type out a message to someone: Kennedy, Tyler, Harris, anyone…but her fingers hovered over the screen, motionless. She felt sick; she got sick in the ambulance.

Upon arrival they took Ophelia away. They rushed her off on a gurny and left Jules standing there. Jules called Kennedy and Harris. She needed to be with someone so she wouldn’t fall apart. It is like the opposite of her assault – then she just wanted to crawl inside herself and disappear – now she needed the comfort of friends who cared about her, and Ophelia. Kennedy got to the hospital first. Without saying a word she wrapped her arms around her best friend. Jules sobbed. She’s gotten so fucking tired of crying… Harris came in running.

“Where’s that bitch?” Jules pained look caused Harris to embrace the blonde.“She’ll be fine.” His words seemed more to reassure himself than Jules.

The trio sat heavily down, waiting. Jules turned over the events in her mind. There were about a million small choices Jules could have done differently that would have resulted in a different outcome than they were currently living. Kennedy held Jules’ hand.

“Whatever happened to O wasn’t your fault.” It was like her best friend could read her mind.

But Kennedy didn’t have the whole truth. It was her fault. Maybe if she had picked up sooner, Ophelia wouldn’t have lost enough blood to warrant the eternal wait of Purgatory. Or, if she had just gone over to make sure Ophelia didn’t do something stupid – like confront a more high-profile adult accused of rape by herself. Or, if she hadn’t gotten the girl involved at all – pressed harder for her to leave it.

“Jules.” Harris snapped his fingers in front of her face. Jules jumped slightly, the pull back to reality a sudden jolt. Harris was standing next to a nurse, looking quizzically at her. “Apparently Ophelia named you as her emergency point of contact. They need to know if Ophelia would want to stay on life support.”

* * *

 

“You know, O really was into comic books.” Harris said.

“I know.” Jules intoned flatly.

“Nah I mean, she was really into comic books. She has like…a million of them at home. When she got to college she wanted to pretend that she was cool, so she doubled down on the weed thing…but damn, she was a huge fucking nerd. Honestly, I think she just wanted to save people…made her be able to move past the shit in her life.”

“She probably would have loved to work with the vigilante.” Kennedy remarked.

All of this vigilante/superhero talk was making Jules angry. Ophelia would talk about what they did as though she was a character in a story who could do whatever they wanted and not have any consequences; as though, no matter whatever happened, they would re-appear. That Ophelia thought she could make the biggest impact in Jules’ life, to give her autonomy back, to give her a shoulder to cry on and never think any the less for it...

“She is not some vigilante in a comic book!” Jules snapped. Kennedy and Harris turned to look at her. Harris quirked an eyebrow at her.

“Ophelia loved to think of herself as a super hero. Why don’t you?” Jules clenched and unclenched her fists.

“Because superheroes aren’t real. There is no one there to save you in your time of need. There’s just yourself.”

“Or maybe superheroes are just people, with flaws and vices. But who overcome their personal issues to make an impact on other’s lives, to show them a way.” Harris replied.

Jules broke down again. Stupid Harris and his perfectly valid points that, no matter how broken Ophelia was, she was always there for Jules, to support her and help her move past her trauma. She didn’t deserve to go out this soon and she doesn’t get to die. Superheroes don’t die.


End file.
